US tariffs on Chinese imports of around 55 per cent are a “good status quo,” but the Trump administration would like to find areas where bilateral trade could increase more freely, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Tuesday.
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Greer’s comments at the Economic Club of New York indicated no immediate move towards lowering US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods ahead of a November 10 deadline for the expiration of a trade truce between the world’s two largest economies.
“If you ask the president, ‘Do we have a deal with China?’ He would say, ‘Yeah, this is our deal. I’ve got 55% tariffs on it. That’s the deal.’ So that is a good status quo,” Greer said.
But he said he wanted to continue regular discussions with Chinese officials to try to achieve a more balanced trade relationship, where the two sides can increase trade in “non-sensitive goods” such as US agricultural products and Chinese consumer goods.
“I would like to get to a position with them where … we can trade, and we can trade a little more freely and in a little more transparent kind of way,” Greer said.
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“But for now, that’s where we are,” he added regarding the 55 per cent US tariff rate including Trump’s first term tariffs on Chinese goods and China’s corresponding rate of over 10 per cent on US imports.